WARNINGS,
Cautions,
and Notes
Warning: Highest level
Alerts users to potential hazards that may result in
death or injury to workers or public
Caution: Medium level
Alerts users to potential hazards that may
damage machinery or equipment
Note: Lowest level
Calls attention to important supplemental
information that may enhance users’
understanding and performance of the procedure
Guidelines to warnings and cautions
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Visually format warnings and cautions so that
they are clearly distinct from instructions and
from each other.
Organize the visual hierarchy of warnings,
cautions, and notes so that warnings are the
most visually distinct, cautions less visually
distinct than warnings, and notes less visually
distinct than cautions. All three though should
be visually distinct from the stages and steps of
the procedure.
Identify only a single hazard and the
consequences of that hazard for each warning
and caution.
Do not include actions in warnings and
cautions
Place warnings and cautions before the steps
to which they apply
Integrate warnings and cautions into
procedures (don’t lump them together into a
separate section)